Cody's Movie Minute

Oscars Review   While the new year and decade are already in full swing, the Academy Awards have finally taken a look back at the wonderful films that graced theatres in 2019. With a night full of surprises and upsets, it is sure to be a discussion for one of the most memorable Oscar shows for quite some time. One of the shocks for the night was Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman not winning a single award. The film was nominated in nine different categories, including two in the category of Best Supporting Actor with nominations for both Joe Pesci and Al Pacino. While some praised its return to Scorsese’s classic mob movie style, others found a lack of originality from the fact that it felt like so much of Scorsese’s previous work. This may have played a factor in its failure to win any of the categories it was nominated for. But nonetheless, ten nominations is nothing to scoff at, and definitely respectable. The acting categories were fairly predictable in terms of who was most likely to take home a statue at the end of the night. Brad Pitt, for his performance in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood, was a clear front runner for the award of Best Supporting Actor and has been since the film’s release last July. Laura Dern, for her role in the film Marriage Story, wasn’t quite as overpowering over her fellow nominees as Pitt, but still was predicted to win Best Supporting Actress. Renée Zellweger, for her portrayal of famous actress, singer, and dancer Judy Garland in the film Judy, was very well deserving of her win for Best Actress. And last but not least was Joaquin Phoenix, who won the award for Best Actor, for his portrayal of the infamous clown of villainy the Joker. This is the first time in Academy Award history that an actor or actress has won an award for playing a character that previously was awarded an Academy Award. Twelve years ago, Heath Ledger was posthumously awarded Best Supporting Actor for his performance as the Joker in 2008’s The Dark Knight. A film that surprisingly left the night without as many awards as originally anticipated was the war drama 1917. With a lot of buzz around the film’s single-shot style and its engrossing atmosphere of dragging the viewer into World War I, it was a frontrunner for both Best Director and Best Picture. However, Parasite won both of those categories, as long as a few others. 1917 did manage to win the categories of Best Sound Mixing, Best Visual Effects, and most importantly Best Cinematography. Roger Deakins’ work as cinematographer is a large part in why this film is so breathtaking, and most of the credit goes to him when it comes to praising the almost seamless single-shot style that 1917 has. The big winner of the night and the underdog throughout the entire Oscar season was the South Korean film Parasite. With awards like Best Original Screenplay, Best International Film, Best Director, and Best Picture, Parasite proved that having subtitles in a film doesn’t discount it for the well-deserved praise and acclaim that it received. Out of the six categories that it was nominated for, it took home four, excluding the categories of Best Production Design and Best Film Editing. And to win both Best Director and Best Picture is an achievement that not many films have been able to accomplish. The 2020 Academy Awards were a spectacular night for the honoring of the talent and skill seen on the silver screen last year. I can’t say that I was able to see every single film that came out last year, or even all of the films that won awards. But I will say that from what I have seen, these films from 2019 are ones that will most likely go down as classics, and if not will still be really well regarded years from now. I would recommend any of these films and suggest you see any that may seem to pique your interest.